X-Ray Examination of the Effect of Removing Non-Cellulosic Constituents from Vegetable Fibres

Abstract

THE celluloso of the cell-wall and fibres of most plants contains closely associated polysaccharide material which is generally a xylan. The cotton hair is unique in being free from xylan, but manilla hemp, jute and sisal, for oxamplo, may contain as much as 15–20 per cent. The view has been put forward tentatively that tho xylan molecules in such fibres participate in the micelles and are oriented in the same direction as the cellulose chains¹: the period along the fibre-axis of xylose residues in oriented xylan would be very much tho same as that of the glucose residues in cellulose, and their presence should make no fundamental difference to the X-ray photograph. Tn support of this view there is the well-known fact that actually no such difference is observed in the ordinary way.